Great Li Martial God

Li Que had his head pressed to the floor and his face could not be seen clearly.

Li Musheng drew his gaze back and continued examining the silver orb in his hand.

At that moment, the kneeling Li Que slowly raised his head. His eyes lifted covertly, and he cast a careful glance toward Li Musheng sitting in the chair.

Seeing that the Tianqi Secret Treasury key had already been taken from the box, the terror that had been in his eyes gradually settled and gave way to a look of venomous hatred.

But Li Musheng was still examining the key, and appeared to have noticed nothing unusual.

After a moment, Li Musheng pocketed the silver orb, then looked back down at Li Que.

Their eyes met, and Second Prince Li Que did not flinch or look away.

He simply stared at the young man seated before him, this Great Li Eighth Prince who had so recently filled him with such terror, the one person who had single-handedly led the Tianjin Guards to destroy Falling God Peak.

Li Yuanling, catching this, immediately furrowed her brow and looked at Li Que kneeling on the floor with suspicion, puzzled by the sudden change in his manner.

The big black cat narrowed its eyes. The way Li Que was looking right now made it feel distinctly like the man deserved a scratch. It was somewhat tempted to simply stride over and scratch him to death and be done with it.”The Tianqi Secret Treasury key is genuine.”

At that, Li Musheng spoke slowly.

Li Que said nothing, seemingly waiting for something.

Not far away, the Elder Zhe, still on his knees, raised his head and looked at Li Que. Something seemed to dawn on him suddenly, and his aged face went through a rapid series of expressions before his gaze shifted to Li Musheng sitting in the chair.

Even so, Li Musheng’s expression throughout remained as calm as ever. He then drew his gaze back and waved a hand, ”Stop waiting. Whatever poison you put on the Tianqi Secret Treasury key will not work on me.”

At those words, Li Que’s expression changed sharply.

He stared hard at Li Musheng, as though trying with all his might to detect some change in the man.

At that, Li Musheng let out a quiet sigh and said, ”Actually, when you came back with the key, I no longer had any particular intention of killing you.”

Originally, whether to kill Second Prince Li Que had been a matter of complete indifference to Li Musheng.

Going by his thinking before he arrived, as long as Li Que handed over the key willingly, he could spare the man’s life.

After all, if word spread that he had killed two princes within a single month, people might think he was setting out to eliminate every prince in Great Li and take the throne for himself.

”Impossible... impossible!”

Li Que stared at Li Musheng, who had remained entirely unchanged, and murmured in disbelief.

”That is the most extraordinary poison in the world. Even a Martial God would struggle against it. How can you possibly be unaffected?”

Li Que, still kneeling on the floor, kept his eyes fixed on Li Musheng. He suspected the man was forcing himself to appear unaffected, that this was all a bluff, and that in reality his body had already been thoroughly infiltrated by the poison.

At the same time, Li Yuanling beside them suddenly went white in the face.

”I will kill you for this!”

She moved immediately, raising a hand to strike the kneeling Li Que.

The Elder Zhe behind them hesitated for a moment, but in the end still chose to act. An invisible true qi barrier dropped around Li Que’s body, intercepting Li Yuanling’s strike in time.

Li Que came back to himself, and gave Li Yuanling a cold glance, though for the moment he had no attention to spare for her.

Li Que then pushed himself up from the floor with both hands and stood to face Li Musheng sitting in the chair.

”I refuse to believe you are unaffected!”

Li Que looked straight at Li Musheng, a gleam of desperation surfacing in his eyes.

Clearly, at this point, he had nothing left to lose. Having thrown everything aside, he had already pressed down the terror Li Musheng had inspired in him.

Li Musheng studied the man at his leisure, then with a thoughtful expression said, ”I am actually somewhat curious. Where did this so-called greatest poison in the world come from?”

The poison Li Que had placed on the silver orb, Li Musheng had detected the moment he touched it.

The poison the man spoke of with such pride was genuinely potent, but unfortunately for Li Que, even the most formidable poison in existence could not penetrate Li Musheng’s Immortal Golden Body.

The reason Li Musheng was interested in this greatest poison in the world was that, upon sensing it, he had caught a faintly familiar trace.

Some time ago, during the prince identity verification at the Tianjin Guards headquarters, someone had administered a peculiar poison to him through a jade needle.

He had noticed that the two poisons shared certain characteristics.

The poison on the silver orb was more fierce and domineering, while the one on the jade needle had been the kind that seeped in noiselessly, extremely difficult to detect.

At that, Li Que standing in the hall gave a cold laugh.

He was now even more certain that Li Musheng was putting up a façade, already thoroughly compromised by the poison, but forcing himself to hold on. Everything was an act.

Otherwise, with a person of Li Musheng’s ability, having learned he had been poisoned, the natural reaction would have been furious retaliation. That he was still sitting there tolerating Li Que’s words could only mean he was too weakened to act.

”Eighth, you brought this on yourself. You have no one to blame but your own arrogance for driving me to this desperate measure.”

Second Prince Li Que looked at Li Musheng and spoke. With the Elder Zhe’s true qi supporting and protecting him, he had found some degree of steadiness and dared to meet Li Musheng’s gaze without retreating.

A flicker of grim satisfaction even crossed his face.

For a man who had destroyed Falling God Peak single-handedly and shaken the world, the most feared Eighth Prince in all of Great Li, to die at his hands, how could that not be cause for excitement?

”Are you truly all right?”

At that, Li Yuanling, blocked by the Elder Zhe’s true qi barrier, spun around and rushed to Li Musheng’s side, asking with profound worry.

Shen Anran and the big black cat, however, were noticeably calmer. They had spent far more time with Li Musheng than Li Yuanling had, and naturally had a much clearer sense of how formidable he was.

If he said Li Que’s poison was useless, it was truly, completely, utterly useless.

Even so, the big black cat had at some unknown moment leaped down from the chair with a ferocious look on its face and was now swaggering toward Li Que.

Before, Li Musheng had shown no intention of killing the man, and it had only been able to sit and fantasize without actually doing anything.

But that was then and this was now. At last it could claw this person it had wanted to scratch for so long.

But right at that moment, the Elder Zhe, who had been kneeling, suddenly shifted and appeared beside Li Que.

In an instant, threads of immensely powerful martial aura radiated from him, immediately bringing the big black cat to a halt.

In the next moment, the big black cat turned into a dark streak and shot back to Li Musheng’s side. Then it turned to face the Elder Zhe and Li Que, waving its paws at them with evident fury.

The message was obvious. It knew it was outmatched. It was time for Li Musheng to step in.

”Stop pressing. The longer it goes on, the deeper the poison spreads. There is nothing you can do now.”

At that, Li Que stared at Li Musheng with an expressionless face. The Elder Zhe beside him also gradually calmed.

He had naturally seen the poison Li Que was referring to as the greatest in the world with his own eyes. It bypassed Martial True Qi entirely, its potency staggering, and could devour the meridians and elixir field in moments.

Even he, forewarned and careful, would not have dared allow himself to be touched by it. Li Musheng’s cultivation was profound, but he was ultimately a body of flesh and blood. If he had been poisoned by this, there was no solution.

At that, Li Musheng said nothing in response to Li Que’s words, only shook his head.

And in the next instant, the Elder Zhe, who had been standing guard at Li Que’s side, suddenly widened his eyes.

At the same time, Li Que suddenly noticed that the true qi barrier enveloping him had completely collapsed, and his brow furrowed at once. He turned to look beside him.

And what he saw was a finger-hole, punched clean through the front and out the back of the Elder Zhe’s forehead. It had appeared at some unknown moment.

The man’s life had vanished in an instant. The most formidable martial world figure in the entire Second Prince’s residence had become a corpse in complete silence.

”How... how...”

Li Que blanched in an instant, then whipped his head around and stared at Li Musheng in horror, ”You... you really were not poisoned at all!”

Among everyone present, the only one who could have silenced the Elder Zhe with a single finger strike was clearly Li Musheng.

At those words, Li Musheng only looked at him with calm eyes, ”You should be able to answer my question now.”

At those words, Li Que suddenly sank straight to the floor, and the Elder Zhe’s corpse beside him toppled with a heavy thud.

Boundless terror swept over Li Que once again.

For one instant, the shock was so complete that his consciousness went blank. When awareness returned, his entire body was shaking beyond his control.

This time, Li Que could not even find the words to beg for his life.

Because he knew very clearly, Li Musheng was absolutely going to kill him.

”What worthless greatest poison in the world.”

”Kill me then. Kill me now.”

”I, Li Que, would rather die than answer your question with a single word!”

Suddenly, as though pushed past the point of reason, Li Que erupted in a frenzied scream toward Li Musheng.

His face had twisted into something like a vengeful demon as he stared at Li Musheng sitting in the chair.

”That is not for you to decide.”

Li Musheng met Li Que’s gaze, raised an eyebrow lightly, and sent a flash of symbol-light dropping into Li Que’s body.

He had only asked the question on a whim, with no particular plan to use the Life and Death Talisman. But since Li Que refused to speak, there was nothing to be done.

In the next instant, the seemingly raving Li Que felt the agony of ten thousand ants gnawing at him from within, and let out a shrieking cry of misery that filled the entire hall.

”I will answer... I will answer... the poison... came from the Hidden Intelligence Bureau...”

...

After that, Li Musheng asked Li Que a few more questions, then glanced at the big black cat.

In an instant, the big black cat, which had been shrinking its neck and carefully watching Li Que’s pitiful state, perked up completely.

Then it padded forward on its cat legs to Li Que’s side.

Li Que at this point had been broken down until he was barely conscious. When the big black cat stepped up in front of him, he had not even processed what was happening.

The cat extended a paw and drew it across his throat.

Li Que instinctively moved to cover his neck, but it made absolutely no difference. His windpipe was blocked by blood as it surged and flowed.

He could only stare wide-eyed at the big black cat before him as the last of his life drained away.

Li Que had never imagined that he would end up dying at the hands of a cat.

Li Musheng stood up from the chair, ”Good. The item has been retrieved. Let us return to the Tianjin Guards headquarters.”

With that, he walked directly out of the hall, giving no further attention to Second Prince Li Que’s body or the Elder Zhe’s corpse on the floor.

Shen Anran and the deeply satisfied big black cat hurried after him.

Li Yuanling stood in place for a moment and looked at Li Que’s body on the floor, then slowly shook her head.

Her gaze then shifted to the Second Prince’s household steward, who had already collapsed from fright against the corner of the hall.

Li Yuanling thought briefly, then said, ”What happened just now, if anyone from the court comes to investigate and asks you, you may tell the truth. But if you exaggerate a single detail and I find out about it, I will have your life.”

At those words, the steward suddenly snapped back to himself, immediately knelt on the floor and knocked his head against it repeatedly, his whole body trembling as he said, ”Your Highness the Princess may rest assured. Your servant will answer truthfully, and would never dare think of anything else.”

Li Yuanling gave a small nod, then turned and left, catching up with Shen Anran and the big black cat.

At the same time, the stealthy martial artist who had been listening in from the shadows stood motionless in the darkness, his face full of terror, not daring to move even a fraction.

Only when Li Musheng’s group had gone far away did he suddenly sag with relief and begin gasping heavily, his face already completely drained of color.

”The Second Prince is dead...”

”The Elder Zhe is dead too...”

”A person that not even the greatest poison in the world can kill. It beggars belief.”

The martial artist muttered to himself involuntarily, then finally remembered why he had come.

He wasted no more time and, stiff with shock, channeled his true qi and moved his figure quickly toward the back of the residence where the assembled martial world figures were.

Before long, word of the Second Prince’s and the Elder Zhe’s deaths reached the ears of those gathered there.

Not one of those martial world figures had any thought of dying loyal to their patron or avenging Second Prince Li Que.

In an instant, the whole group scattered like birds and beasts, fleeing the Second Prince’s residence in every direction.

They were freelance martial world figures to begin with. As far as they were concerned, the fact that Li Musheng had not come to destroy the entire Second Prince’s household was already extraordinarily fortunate. None of them would dream of risking their lives to seek revenge against Li Musheng. The thought was one they would not even allow themselves to have.

And as the martial world figures scattered and fled, the news that Li Musheng had come to the residence and killed Second Prince Li Que quickly spread.

The various forces in the capital had been trying urgently to find out why the Eighth Prince, just returned to the capital, had gone to the Second Prince’s residence as his first stop.

But before any answer had been found, word of Li Que’s death had already come out.

In an instant, the entire imperial capital was thrown into an uproar.

Li Musheng’s utterly unconstrained conduct sent shockwaves through every faction in the city.

Killing a Great Li prince outright, just like that, was something that had never happened in the entire history of the Great Li dynasty.

Li Musheng’s actions were undeniably a disregard for imperial family law, a placing of himself above Great Li’s statutes.

Some were furious. Some were filled with dread. And some watched from the shadows with secret delight, because this was a significant piece of leverage that might finally be used to bring Li Musheng down.